I met Putin when he wanted acceptance from the West. Failure made him vengeful

The first time I met Vladimir Putin in person was in October 1999, when he was prime minister of Russia . He bounced into the room wearing a cream polo-neck jumper and a smart tweed jacket, as if he had popped in for drinks at the golf club. Unfortunately, we were not at a golf club but on a bleak army base in the breakaway southern republic of Chechnya , and the dapper little man…